By Carol Christian |
July 28, 2011
| Updated: July 28, 2011 11:31am

9/7/03) Undated file photo of murder victim, Paul Broussard, story about opposing the parole of Jon Buice, one of Broussard's convicted murderers, who was sentenced in 1992 to 45 years in prison, who is up for his first parole hearing. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle) HOUCHRON CAPTION (09/08/2003): Paul Broussard was killed in a 1991 gay bashing attack. HOUCHRON CAPTION (10/02/2003): Paul Broussard was killed in 1991 after leaving a Montrose-area club.

Sometime in October, Jon Buice is set to walk out of a West Texas prison a free man, clear of his debt to the state for killing gay Houston banker Paul Broussard in 1991.

But a growing contingent of local elected officials is working behind the scenes to make sure Buice doesn't taste freedom quite yet.

Buice (pronounced "Bice") is serving 45 years in prison for his part in Broussard's murder, which stunned this city two decades ago. Commissioners in the Amarillo office of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 2-0 on July 1 to approve Buice's parole.

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos recently wrote to the board, graphically recounting how 10 "co-conspirators" from The Woodlands area drove to Montrose to bully homosexuals, targeting Broussard, then 27, and two friends.

"The defendants swarmed out of their vehicles, chased Paul down a dead-end street, surrounded him and they attacked - beating the defenseless Paul Broussard with a nail-studded two-by-four, kicking him in the face, chest and groin with steel-toed boots, crushing his testicles, hitting him with their fists and, finally, Jon Christopher Buice stabbed him to death," the letter from Lykos stated.

Buice, now 37, pleaded guilty to murder and went to prison in December 1992. The other nine are on parole.

State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, wrote a letter to the parole board July 7, expressing concern that the vote for Buice's release involved only two parole commissioners and no governor-appointed board member.

In an interview, Whitmire also said the parole process is inconsistent.

"It's amazing to me the number of nonviolent, young offenders they routinely deny parole, and then you see a murderer serving less than half his sentence get paroled," he said.

'Heinous nature' of crime

Whitmire said it's unusual for him to write a letter to the parole board.

"I think if you do it too often, they think it's your routine," he said. "It's not my routine. I don't get people in prison or out of prison."

Coleman said part of his reason for writing was this crime's "heinous nature."

The parole board handles most parole reviews regionally, with offices in six locations. Each office has one board member appointed by the governor and two parole commissioners named by the board.

The Amarillo panel handles parole requests from 27 West Texas prisons, including the Wallace Unit in Colorado City, where Buice was transferred last year after he developed a relationship with a female chaplain in Huntsville. There was no evidence the relationship was sexual, but officials deemed it "inappropriate."

Buice was approved for parole in October under conditions of "maximum supervision," electronic monitoring and substance-abuse treatment.

Reasons for his pending release included his age of 17 at the time of the offense and the college degrees he has earned in prison.

Rissie Owens, the board chairwoman based in Huntsville, said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Victim Services Division will process all protest information concerning Buice's pending parole and will send it to the Amarillo panel.

The panel can review the information and decide whether to modify the previous vote, Owens said.

Friend defends inmate

Ray Hill, a longtime gay-rights activist and former prison inmate who has befriended Buice and is championing his release, said he takes issue with the often-repeated claim that the attackers used nail-studded boards and steel-toed boots. Hill said he was at the crime scene soon after it happened and neither saw nor heard evidence of such weapons.

Broussard's autopsy noted a puncture wound with a surrounding abrasion on his back, indicating he was hit with a board with nails, said retired Judge Mike Anderson, the prosecutor at Buice's trial.

As for the boots some of the perpetrators wore, Anderson said he wasn't sure they had steel toes but thought they could still inflict injury.

"It was so bad, nobody had to exaggerate," Anderson said. "We had a good-faith argument in saying they were attacked with boards with nails. There was some construction around there, and we thought this was a weapon of opportunity."

Group opposes release

Noel Freeman, president of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said the group voted several months ago to oppose Buice's release and has encouraged its 800 members and 5,100 email recipients to write to the parole board.

"I spend a lot of time on the phone, calling everyone I can think of, asking them to write letters to withdraw the vote," said Rodriguez, who lives in Georgia, where Broussard grew up and was a high school honor student before earning a degree at Texas A&amp;M University.

Andy Kahan, crime-victim advocate for the city of Houston for 19 years, said he and Rodriguez are planning to give state officials new information in the next month that they hope will block Buice's parole.